A brief history of language teaching

By facebooker_1489753024381952
  • 1501

    Sixteenth Century

    -Latin was the dominant language of education, commerce, religion, and goverment in the Western World.
    -French, Italian, and English gained in importance as a result of political changes in Europe, and Latin gradually became displaced as a language of spoken and written communication.
    -Roger Acham and Montaigne had made specific proposals for curriculum reform and for changes in the way Latin was taught.
  • Period: 1501 to

    Sixteenth-Eighteenth Century

    Children entering "grammar school" in England, were initially given a rigorous introduction to Latin Grammar.

  • Seventeenth Century

    -Comenious and John Locke had made specific proposals for curriculum reform and for changes in the way Latin was taught.
  • Period: to

    Seventeenth-Nineteenth Century

    The study of Latin took on a different function. The stufy of calssical Latin and an alanysis of its grammar and rethoric became the model for foreign language study.

  • Eighteenth Century

    -As "modern languages" began to enter the curriculum of European schools, they were taught using the same basic procedures that were used for teeaching Latin. Textbooks (grammar rules, lists of vocabulary and sentences for translation). Speaking the FL was not the goal, and oral practice was limited

  • Early-Nineteenth Century

    -The study of Latin had become the standard way of studying FL in schools.
    -Textbook compilers were mainly determined to codify the FL into frozen rules of morphology and syntax to be explained and eventually memorized. Oral work was reduced to an absolute minimum.
    -The most typical books in this period were those by Seidenstücker and Plötz.
    -Gouin: has been one of the first reformers to attempt to build a methodology around observation of child language learning.

  • Early-Nineteenth Century (2)

    -L. Sauveur tried to apply natural principles to the language. He used oral interaction (questions as way of presenting-eliciting).
    -"A more reasonable goal for FL course would be a reading knowledge of a FL (introduction of words and grammatical structures in simple reading texts)."
    -Reading become the goal of most FL programs in the United States.
    -Sweet and other applied linguistics argued for the development of sound methodological principles to serve as the basis for teaching techniques.

  • Early-Nineteenth Century (3)

    -Applied linguistics systematized the principles proposed earlier by the Reform Movement and so laid the foundations for what development into the British approach to teaching English as a FL.
    -Subsequent development led to Audiolingualism in the United States and the Oral Approach in Britain.
  • Period: to

    Nineteenth-Twentieth Century

    Method: the concept emerged as a significant educational issue.
  • Period: to

    Nineteenth Century-Present Day

    The Direct Method can be regarded as the first language teaching method to have caught the attention of teachers and languages teaching specialists, and it offered a methodology that appeared to move language teaching into a new era.
    It marked the beginning of the "Method Era."
  • Period: to

    Mid-Late Nineteenth Century

    -Opposition to the Grammar Translation Method gradually developed in several European countries. This Reform Movement, laid the foundations for the development of new ways of teaching languages and raised controversies that have continued to the present day.
    -The most active period in the history of approaches and methods.
  • Period: to

    Mid-Nineteenth - Mid-Twentieth Century

    -Grammar Translation dominated European and FL teaching, and in modified form it continues to be widely used in some parts of the world today. FL learning meant memorizing endless lists of unusable grammar rules and vocabulary and attempting to produce perfect translations of stilted or literary prose. Understanding literary texts is the primary focus of FL study and there is little need for speaking knowledge of the language.

  • Mid-Nineteenth Century

    -A typical textbook consisted of chapters or lessons organized around grammar points. Each grammar point was listed, rules on its use were explained, and it was illustrated by sample sentences.
    -Grammar Translation was the offspring of German schoolarship, the object of "to know everything about something rather than the thing itself."
    -Grammar Translation was in fact first known in the United States as the Prussian Method.

  • Mid-Nineteenth Century (2)

    -The Ciceronian or the Prussian Method of Teaching the Elements of the Latin Language.
    -The principal characteristics of the Grammar Translation Method were these:
    1. The goal of FL study is to learn a language in order to read its literature or in order to benefit from the mental discipline and intellectual development. Grammar Translation is a way of studying a language that approaches the language first through detailed analysis of its grammar rules, folowed by application of this

  • Mid-Nineteenth Century (3)

    knowledge to the task of translating sentences and texts into and out of the target language. "The first language is maintained as the reference system in the acquisition of the second language."
    2. Reading and writing are the major focus; little or no systematic attention is paid to speaking or listeting.
    3. Vocabulary selection is based solely on the reading texts used, and words are taught through bilingual word lists, dictionary study, and memorization.

  • Mid-Nineteenth Century (4)

    1. The sentence is the basic unit of teaching and language practice.
      1. Accyracy is emphasized. Students are expected to attain high standars in translation.
      2. Grammar is thaugh deductively: presentation and study of grammar rules (practiced trough translation exercises). Teach grammar in an organized and systematic way. "The student's native language is the medium of instruction." -Several factors contributed to a questioning and rejection of the Grammar-Translation Method.

  • Mid-Nineteenth Century (8)

    -Other methods attracted smaller followers: The Silent Way, the Natural Approach and Total Physical Approach.

  • Mid-Nineteenth Century (5)

    -Increased opportunities for communication among Europeans created a demand for oral proficiency in FL.
    -Language teaching specialist turned their attention to the way modern language were being taught in secondary schools.
    -The public education system was seen to be failing in its responsibilities
    -In England, Germany and France, new approaches to language teaching were developed.
    -C. Marcel referred to child language learning as a model for language teaching, emphasized the importance of

  • Mid-Nineteenth Century (6)

    meaning in learning. Proposed that reading be taught before other skills. Also, he tried to locate language teaching within a broader educational framework.
    -T. Prendergast, he said that children use contextual and situational cues to interpret utterances and that they use memorized phrases and "routines." He proposed the first "structural syllabus."
    -F. Gouin developed an approach to teaching FL bases on his observations. His method use situations and themes as ways of organizing and

  • Mid-Nineteenth Century (7)

    and presenting oral language: "Gouin series", which includes sequences of sentences related to such activities as chopping wood and opening the door.
    -The ideas and methods of Marcel, Prendergast and Gouin were hence lacked the means for wider dissemination, acceptance, and implementation.
    -Concern for the teaching method.
    -The emergence of the Audiolingual Method and the Situational Method, which were both superseded by the Communicative Approach.

  • Late-Nineteenth Century (2)

    -Henry Sweet, in his book "The Practical Study of Language" set 4 principles for the development of teaching method:
    1. Careful selection of what is to be taught.
    2. Imposing limits on what is to be taught.
    3. Arranging what us to be taught in term of: listening, speaking, reading and writing.
    4. Grading materials from simple to complex.
    -Wilhelm Vitor argued that training in phonetics would enable teachers to pronounce accurately. Speech patterns than grammar,

  • Late-Nineteenth Century

    -Teachers and linguistics needed new approaches to language teaching and the foundation for more widespread pedagogical reforms was laid: The Reform Movement in language teaching.
    -1880: Practical-minded linguistics began to provide the intellectual leadership needed to give reformist ideas greater credibility and acceptance.
    -1886: The International Phonetic Association (IPA) was founded: designed to enable the sounds of any language. IPA wanted to improve the teaching of modern languages.

  • Late-Nineteenth Century (3)

    were the fundamental element of language. He published his view in the book Language Teaching Must Start Afresh: training teacher in the new science of phonetics.
    -Vitor and Sweet shared many beliefs:
    1. The spoken language is primary.
    2. Phonetics should be applied to teaching/teacher training.
    3. Learners should hear the language first.
    4. Words should be presented in sentences.
    5. Grammar should be taught inductively.
    6. Translation should be avoided.

  • Late-Nineteenth Century (4)

    -Parallel to the ideas of the Reform Movement was the interest in developing principles for language teaching out of naturalistic principles of language learning: Natural Method, known as Direct Method.
    -Reformers of this century turned their attention to naturalistic principles of language learning: "Natural Method."
    -L. Sauveur opened a language school in Boston (1860s) with the Natural Method. "A foreign language wan be taught without translation."

  • Late-Nineteenth Century (5)

    -F. Franke wrote forms and meanings in the target language, and provided a theoretical justification for a monolingual approach to teaching. "A language could best be taught using it actively in the classroom."
    -Direct Method (Enlightened Amateurism): The most widely known of the natural method. Us of the FL in the classroom, induce rules of grammar, the textbook was replaced, speaking began with systematic attention to pronunciation, known words used to teach new vocabulary.

  • Late-Nineteenth Century (6)

    -Drawbacks of the Direct Method: It required teachers who were native speakers. Dependent on the teacher's skills, and their skills were limited. Restricted time available for FL teaching in schools. Was popular just in private language schools (because public schools couldn't pay for it).
    -Content-Based Instruction and Task-Based Language Teaching emerged as new approaches to language teaching, as did Competency-Based Instruction (focus on the outcomes of learning).

  • Late-Nineteenth Century (7)

    -Approaches such as Cooperative Learning, Whole Language Approach and Multiple Intelligences, have been extended to second language settings.
    -Alternative ways of understanding the nature of language teaching have emerged that are sometimes viewed as characterizing the "Post Method Era."

  • Twentieth Century

    -The European popularity of the Direct Method Caused FL specialists in the United States to attempt to have it implemented in American schools and colleges.
    -The history of language teaching saw the rise and fall of a variety of language teaching approaches and methods

  • Twentieth Century (2)

    -The four Cs (skills):
    1. Collaborate: Understand how to plan for, build and include collaboration with peers who are colleagues and experts in the field.
    2. Communication: Perform independently and with groups in a highly.
    3. Critical thinking: Be ready for daily, global interaction.
    4. Creativity: Be cable of adaptive, flexible and creative thinking.
  • Period: to

    Early-Ninteenth - Mid-Nineteenth Century

    The emphasis on reading continued to characterize FL teaching in the United States.